Who makes their own line sets?

[GregK]

Is splicing better, cleaner or what are the benefits?

If you gradually taper the buried end of the line, then spliced loop should only reduce the line's strength by about 5 - 10%. With a sleeved and stitched loop, the loop's strength is dependent on the stitches crossing the loop, and generally polyester thread is a lot weaker than Dyneema or Spectra kiteline. I seem to remember a Switch lab test video in which sleeved and stitched loop broke at about 60 to 70% of the line's strength.

[PugetSoundKiter]

I followed this a couple years ago http://nwkite.com/forums/t-11649.html. A little bit of work, but they probably have 500 sessions on them, still look good and only cost $70 to make...

Agree, I've made several sets of these too, some additional info: viewtopic.php?p=969627&sid=d60ed9fa719d ... 29#p969627

[edt]

Edt,

Im guessing half of my lines are sleaved with stitching.
Is splicing better, cleaner or what are the benefits?

Got many sets of old lines, they look good but worn near pigtails, can I reuse them for shorter foiling lines?


Thx

1) spliced lines are the strongest, stronger than stitching. Stitched lines are faster to make at the factory, but if you are making custom lines you should only sleeve if you have some sort of lines that you can't splice (for instance if you accidentally buy 4 strand line instead of 12 strand). Greg gave some numbers which are pretty close to what I've seen. All the strength of a splice is in the long tail, and how careful you are to do the taper.

2) Yes you can do whatever you like with your lines. There's no rules! Now some people ride their lines until they snap (that's me). Others get rid of lines as soon as they show the slightest amount of fuzz. Others, trim lines when they get fuzz near the pigtails. It's all you, do what you want. If you screw up, that's more swimming, depends on how much risk you like taking. I don't mind swimming.

3) You should notice that when manufacturers create lines sets that have one end sleeved and one end spliced the reason for this is that most modern safeties require a spliced end for it to feed easily through the safety system. Back when everyone had the mini-5th system with the high Y, sleeved ends on both sides were more common. Now with the single line flagging system, it's more common to have a line set with one side spliced and the other end sleeved. It is kind of nice to have a sleeved end on the kite side because you don't have to use pigtails, but if you don't mind making pigtails you should go ahead and splice all your lines.

[Mossy 757]

pre-made Kiteline sets are the biggest scam in this sport since UV protective kite covers

[edt]

Nothing wrong with buying premades if you want the convenience.. If you want to save money there are lot of things in life that make a bigger difference than saving a few dollars on line sets. For instance eating out every day instead of cooking your own meals at home. Or driving to work every day instead of taking the bus. I think the main reason to make your own lines is you have a lot more control so the lines are exactly how you want them.

[cleepa]

Get your line material from Alibaba. It'll cost you about $15 for a set (at least it did with SK75, but there's no reason not to get SK95 now). You'll find the line material manufacturers for several big brands on there. The only downside is one spool of line is 1000m.